Technical Field
The disclosed embodiments relate in general to vehicle monitoring and more specifically to a device and method for handheld device based battery efficient context monitoring and detection of a vehicular motion (driving trips). Furthermore, the disclosed embodiments relate to the identification of a specific vehicle and, more particularly, to a device and method for handheld device context monitoring and detection of unique vehicular patterns (including, but not limited to, sound patterns and blue tooth patterns).
Description of the Related Art
Monitoring context and detecting vehicular motion is an important task that enables automatic assessment of the driving skills. OBD-2 based devices, attached to a car onboard diagnostic port, read speed from OBD-2 port and use it to successfully detect start and end of the time period of vehicular motion, which is also referred to herein as a driving trip.
Many handheld devices (for example smartphones, tablets, etc.) are equipped with built-in GPS hardware component that enables devices to read motion speed on a second by second basis. These speed readings can be used to monitor the context of handheld device and detect start and end of the vehicular motion. (driving trip). Since GPS hardware component needs a lot of power to operate, its frequent utilization required for efficient speed monitoring has a severe impact on the handheld device's battery drainage. Thus, due to battery limitation, this method cannot be practically used to monitor vehicular motion 24×7.
A modern handheld device includes many advanced hardware components. For instance, some smartphones include components with capabilities similar to those of a simple personal computer, e.g., random access memory (RAM), data storage media, CPU, graphics accelerator, and alphanumeric keypad. In addition, a phone may include such components as motion sensors (i.e. accelerometers, etc.), orientation sensors (gyroscopes, magnetometers, etc.), light sensors, pressure sensors, GPS hardware component, network-based position estimation component, one or more video cameras, networking and Internet capability, remote component connectivity, high quality display, touch screen, battery, microphone, speakerphone, Bluetooth, NFC, and other components.
Accordingly, new and improved systems and methods are needed that provide a handheld device based system for battery efficient context monitoring and detection of a vehicular motion. In addition, new and improved systems and methods are needed that provide a handheld device based system for identification of a specific vehicle associated with the detected vehicular motion.